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Antioch's Closet Racism Finally Exposed - Inside Bay Area

More at the Tribune From Tribune: ANTIOCH, Calif.—As more and more black renters began moving into this mostly white San Francisco Bay Area suburb a few years ago, neighbors started complaining about loud parties, mean pit bulls, blaring car radios, prostitution, drug dealing and muggings of schoolchildren.

In 2006, as the influx reached its peak, the police department formed a special crime-fighting unit to deal with the complaints, and authorities began cracking down on tenants in federally subsidized housing.Now that police unit is the focus of lawsuits by black families who allege the city of 100,000 is orchestrating a campaign to drive them out."A lot of people are moving out here looking for a better place to live," said Karen Coleman, a mother of three who came here five years ago from a blighted neighborhood in nearby Pittsburgh. "We are trying to raise our kids like everyone else. But they don't want us here."

-- Antioch has been known for a kind of closet racism that has gone largely unreported and unchecked. Perhaps stories like this will help people see the city's true colors.